"... in the last days
perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves,
lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to
parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers,
without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors,
headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such
people turn away!
"...all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer
persecution. But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse,
deceiving and being deceived. But you must continue in the things
which you have learned..."
2 Timothy 3:1-14
"...the wrath of God
is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in
unrighteousness....
"Professing to be wise, they became fools....
"Therefore God also gave them
up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their
bodies among themselves....
"God gave them up to vile
passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for
what is against nature. Likewise also the men... men with men
committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty
of their error which was due.
"And even as they did not like
to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased
[depraved] mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being
filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness,
covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife,
deceit, evil-mindedness.
"They are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God,
violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient
to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving,
unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those
who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the
same but also approve of those who practice them."
Romans 1:18-32
"For the time will
come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but
according to their own desires, because they have itching ears,
they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn
their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
But you be watchful in all things..." 2
Timothy 4:2-5
“There is none
righteous, no, not one."
Romans 3:10
"All have sinned and
fall short of the glory of God…"
Romans 3:23
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked;
who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind,
even to give every man according to his ways...."
Jeremiah 17:9-10
History of human depravity
"So when the woman saw
that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes,
and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and
ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate."
Genesis 3:6 (See
The Nature and Tactics of
Satan)
"The earth also was
corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. So God
looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had
corrupted their way on the earth. And God said to Noah, 'The
end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with
violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the
earth.'" Genesis 6:11-13
"You shall not make any
cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks on you: I
am the Lord. Do not prostitute your daughter, to cause her to be a
harlot, lest the land fall into harlotry, and the land become full
of wickedness. You shall keep My Sabbaths and reverence My
sanctuary: I am the Lord. Give no regard to mediums and familiar
spirits; do not seek after them, to be defiled by them: I am the
Lord your God."
Leviticus 19:28-31
"They are deeply
corrupted, as in the days of Gibeah.
He will remember their iniquity; He will punish their sins....
I saw your fathers as the firstfruits on the fig tree in its
first season.
But they went to Baal Peor (pagan worship),
And separated themselves to that shame;
They became an abomination like the thing they loved."
Hosea 9:9-10
"...to the wicked God
says: 'What right have you to declare My statutes, or take My
covenant in your mouth, seeing you hate instruction and cast My
words behind you?"
Psalm 50:16-17
"Jesus said, 'Are you also
still without understanding? Do you not yet understand that whatever
enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? But those
things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they
defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders,
adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These
are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed
hands does not defile a man.”
Matthew 15:10-20
"The
heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know
it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man
according to his ways...."
Jeremiah 17:9-10
"...contend earnestly for the faith
which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men
have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this
condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into
lewdness [immorality] and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus
Christ....
"...the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt,
afterward destroyed those who did not believe.... Sodom and
Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these,
having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone
after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the
vengeance of eternal fire....
"...these speak evil of whatever they do
not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in
these things they corrupt themselves.... [T]hey feast
with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds
without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees
without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; raging
waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for
whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever....
"These are grumblers, complainers,
walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great
swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage. But you,
beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles
of our Lord Jesus Christ: how they told you that there would be
mockers in the last time who would walk according to their
own ungodly lusts. These are sensual persons, who
cause divisions, not having the Spirit."
"But you, beloved, building
yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,
keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy
of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And on some have
compassion, making a distinction; but others save with fear,
pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by
the flesh.
"Now to Him who is able to keep you from
stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His
glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, Who alone is wise,
be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever."
Jude 3-25
Solution to human depravity
“I have been
crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ
lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live
by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for
me." Galatians
2:20
"And you He made
alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you
once walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons
of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves
in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the
others.
“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His
great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in
trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have
been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in
the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He
might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward
us in Christ Jesus.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith,
and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works,
lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in
Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we
should walk in them." Ephesians 2:1-10
"Do you not know
that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be
deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor
homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom
of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but
you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the
Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God."
1 Corinthians
6:9-11
"If anyone teaches
otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the
words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which
accords with godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing.... From
such withdraw yourself." 1 Titus 6:3, 5
"There is
therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who
walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of
the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of
sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was
weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of
sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That
the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not
after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after
the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after
the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally
minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace."
Romans 8:1-6
See also
What it
means to be a Christian